From Sara Shepherd: Authorities have issued an Amber Alert for an 8-month-old Carthage boy taken from his home Thursday night by two masked men.

Eddie Salazar is described as Hispanic, 3 feet tall and 20 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He has a lung-shaped birthmark on his right bicep and was last seen wearing a short-sleeved blue bodysuit and white socks.

Just after 11 p.m. Thursday, two men broke into the residence while Eddie’s father was sleeping, according to the Alert. They beat the father until he was unconscious and ransacked the house before taking the child.

The intruders wore ski masks and all black clothing. Carthage police Chief Greg Dagnan said early information indicates the abduction was random, the Associated Press reported. He said initial suspect information is so vague that police aren’t sure where the men may be headed.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or Carthage police at 417-237-7200.

There is something "off" in the father's story about the masked men dressed in black. Thieves usually don't take infants that they would be burdened with if they were just ransacking a house. If my kids and g-kids were to describe bad men it would be masked men dressed in black.

Carthage police say Eddie Salazar Sr., 28, the father of the missing eight-month-old baby who was found dead on Saturday in the Spring River, is the prime suspect in his son’s death.

In a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Carthage Police Chief Greg Dagnan said investigators have determined that Salazar Sr., lied to police when he reported that two men in ski masks broke into his home at 227 E. Mound St. late Thursday and took Eddie Salazar Jr. from his bed.

Dagnan said Salazar Sr. gave police the name of a man he said was one of the people who broke into the home. Police found that person early morning on Saturday and they were able to rule that person out as a suspect.

At that point, Salazar Sr. admitted he lied to police and was charged with filing a false police report, a class B misdemeanor. As of Saturday afternoon, Salazar Sr. was being held in the Carthage City Jail on $100,000 bond.

This case reminded me of the Aveion Lewis case, but I was really hoping it would have a different ending. It's unbelievable how many sick people in our society are capable of killing innocent, defenseless children. It's even worse when it's parents who kill their own children.

JASPER COUNTY, MO. -- Murder charges have been filed against a Carthage man suspected of killing his 8-month-old son.

Eddie Salazar Sr., 29, was charged Tuesday for the second degree murder of his son Eddie Salazar Jr.

The charges follow autopsy results from the Boone County Medical examiner’s office that show the 8-month’s death was a homicide.

Eddie Salazar Jr. was reported missing on Feb. 4 by his father. Salazar Sr. initially reported that two masked men broke into the home while he was sleeping, beat him until he was unconscious and took his son.

Two days later, police found the body of 8-month-old’s wedged against a tree on the bank of the Spring River.

"We had people from the water patrol who got in a watercraft and we'd been, they'd been out earlier they ventured a little farther out this time and found the body,” Jasper County Sheriff Archie Junn said.

Salazar Sr. was originally charged with a misdemeanor of making a false police report. He pleaded not guilty that charge on Feb. 11.

Seven years ago, Salazar Sr., was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of second-degree robbery.

JOPLIN, Mo. -- A man who killed his 8-month-old son and then told police that two unknown armed men kidnapped the boy received a life (30-year) prison sentence on Monday. A jury convicted Eddie Salazar Sr. last month for the death of Eddie Salazar Jr. in February 2010. The sentence was the maximum that Salazar could have received for second-degree murder.

Justice4all wrote:Dad gets maximum prison term for killing infant son in Carthage

by KY3 News news@ky3.com2:54 p.m. CDT, April 30, 2012

JOPLIN, Mo. -- A man who killed his 8-month-old son and then told police that two unknown armed men kidnapped the boy received a life (30-year) prison sentence on Monday. A jury convicted Eddie Salazar Sr. last month for the death of Eddie Salazar Jr. in February 2010. The sentence was the maximum that Salazar could have received for second-degree murder.